If the campaign is successful, all of the backers will immediately get a free copy of the original Stalin vs. Martians game.

We'll try to explain what we're planning gameplay-wise without any PR bullshit.

Essentially, it is an action/strategy hybrid.

Do you remember Battletech for Sega Genesis? AKA MechWarrior 3050. You know, that action game, Desert Strike clone, with some nice strategic elements.
This is how the skeleton of the SvM3 gameplay looks like. We even have a giant robot. Driven by Stalin himself.

It is not really a Battletech clone. (No it is, you're lying to the people). But it gives you the main idea. Now add incredible weirdness of the missions on top of that, and elements of classic titles like Cannon Fodder (So we're stealing from other games too).

Check the UPDATES section for more prototype screenshots!

We chose that direction because we believe is makes the most sense. We want the game to be action-oriented, while retaining some vestiges of the strategy genre. We want Stalin to be the lead character, so you could control this beast directly. And it gives us some great flexibility.

Who really cares about that?

OK. Normally our team members develop a different kind of games. For example, something like this: http://holywarp.com/

So Troma-style flicks is not really what we do for a living (although we wish we could).

Our team includes people who worked on titles like
S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars, Alexander, Frontline: Fields of
Thunder, CrimeCraft and many others.

Everyone on Kickstarter posts pictures of the team, so this is our take on "team experience".

The main problem of the first Stalin vs. Martians game (apart from historical accuracy) was actually its budget. You wouldn't believe how low it was. The most crushing thing was that all of these happened during the crisis of the economy, so the game was rushed for release. You must get us right: making a great strategy game wasn't our goal from day one. The game is not about that. But releasing a beta-version wasn't our intention.

Kickstarter is a great option for us, because with appropriate funding we'll be able to make things right. We'll be able to create an inhumanly atrocious trash icon, but at the same time it will be playable and enjoyable.

And we will add all that everyone liked about SvM: total craziness, absurdist humor, insane soundtrack, funny videos and wicked intermissions. And hopefully we’ll be able to introduce a brand new twist: demented mini-games.

Stalin vs. Martians 3 is not about the core gameplay and
stuff. It is about the whole package. You have main missions and a crazy storyline.
Then you have videos. And mini-games. And music. It is the sum of all parts
that matters.

Our development philosophy lies on three basic principles:

1. Hold your head up high

2. Raise your fist up in the air

3. Play metal louder than hell

“Dancing Stalin” video was something you cannot expect. One
of the most memorable and brain-melting things from the original SvM.
Obviously, SvM3 follows these footsteps: in-game videos are integral for the
game.

Remember Dancing Stalin? Take a look:

In fact it was used as a trailer for the game (though the
dancing sequence was used within the game quite prominently). But we had more
videos between some of the missions. Something like this:

SvM3 will feature things like that. Some of them are well
expected. Some of them will be a real sucker punch. Something you can’t even
imagine. Trust us, we can do this kind of things. And that’s what we want to do
in SvM3. And yeah, we need budget for that. As we said before, the game’s not
like “make a core gameplay, some units here and there, some environment”. No.
The budget also goes for video production, music production, hopefully
mini-games production. All this stuff and even more.

What we’re trying to achieve here is maximum number of videos.
And creative freedom and flexibility. The more backers we have, the more chaos we’ll
be able to unleash.

Mini-games is a new feature of Stalin vs. Martians 3.
Instead of making one game (with all bells and whistles like music and videos),
we want to make, like, ten games. Or more.

And it all depends on you. We have budget estimations.
Realistic estimations, we have enough experience for that. Making lots of
mini-games, integrated into SvM3 is a great idea and we’re gonna have a total
blast with that. But that’s some substantial part of work. Especially when we’re
talking about a possibility of developing of a DOZEN of games. Even if the
games are short. You need some basic mechanics, you need content, and all of
this must be fun, playable and enjoyable.

So if we want to have a one core game and a collection of
mini-games inside, the most reasonable thing here is to move it to STRETCH
GOALS and let the audience vote for that. And we’ll try to do what we can and
as much funny stuff as we can.

Mini-games are mostly about grabbing a casual genre and taking it on a trip to Gulag. There will be some serious molesting, that’s guaranteed.

(Yes, we know that Super Mario Bros. is not a casual game,
but we really want to make a Mario-type mini-game with Stalin. Just because.)

We think Stalin is a great character for a videogame. We honestly do. At some points we had some doubts about that. But then you see a successful release of something like GTA V and, you know… Everybody enjoys playing Trevor in GTA V. But Stalin is basically Trevor, but on a greater scale. It's like... Imagine Trevor becoming a leader of the state somehow. That’s the story of Joseph Stalin. Everybody likes controversial charismatic characters. And we have one for you. (In fact, we have more than one.)

If you like Grand Theft Auto, you will have no problem with Stalin vs. Martians 3. In a way, it is like a crossover between GTA, Red Alert and Postal. With a pinch of Toxic Avenger on a top.

Soundtrack was arguably the best part of the original Stalin vs. Martians game (apart from the title and the concept, obviously). So we believe the sounds of music is a super-important part of the project.

The soundtrack will be diverse, wild and shocking. We wish Ilya Orange, who wrote most of the original score, return to the project and provide more tunes. But he won’t be the only person, who will contribute to SvM3’s music landscape. There is a number of bands and composers we worked with in the past, and we’re sure they will deliver.

One of the most important things is licensing. We did some of the licensing for the original SvM game (like ANJ and My Little Airport), but we never had budget to bring it to another level.

Go wild. Make SvM3 much more hilarious than the original.

Introduce a decent gameplay. Seriously. No kidding.

Make you control a giant robot with Stalin inside.

Cameo appearances by Churchill, Lenin, Putin and more.

Fill all of the space between the missions with ridiculous videos (like Dancing Stalin).

Our current estimations is that the game will be something like 12-15 missions long. Which is significantly bigger than, you know, Desert Strike or something. But we want to add more levels: because it’s fun. And what is more important, really enhance the experience with our trademark absurdist videos and intermissions. The more resources we’ll have, the more videos, music tracks and everything we’ll be able to put into the game. We want to have something really wicked, kitschy and unbelievably tasteless on every inch of the game. After and before every level. And inside as well. So EVERY stretch goal actually contributes to the madness and to the number of gags.

Now let's get physical.

Risks and challenges

The main risk is that the game can be just too awesome.

Now, let’s be serious. Game development is always a risk. Our team members have developed and shipped dozens of titles in the past. We have a lot of relevant experience in the field. And that is why we clearly understand why it is risk and what may go wrong. And what WILL inevitably go wrong.

We’re trying to be realistic in our approach. That’s why we spend a lot of time planning what type of genre and level design will fit our project and make it managable. What kind of assets will be produced and how they will be produced. What kind of code we will have and how much workpower we need to get things done properly.

The budget obviously reflects all of this. We had some serious budgeting problems with the original Stalin vs Martians (and some other titles as well) and we must be sure that won’t happen again. We must be realistic and we believe that we’re realistic.

You also can be pretty sure that we’re not going to, you know, ask for the money on Kickstarter and then go and ask money from the publisher. Like some of the people do. It is quite obvious, that games like Stalin vs. Martians are essentially “people’s games”, you can’t get a funding for THAT from an average publisher. Only the audience can keep this indie kitsch madness alive (and even expand it to feature films and FMV-shooters).

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $1,500 or more
About $1,500

MASTER OF PUPPETS

DESIGN ALTERNATE VEHICLE FOR STALIN (your description/references will become a basis for one of the Stalin's means of transportation: which is basically like designing Stalin's unit) + TYRANT TIER (Military Box Edition + stuff)

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $2,000 or more
About $2,000

LYRICAL POET

WRITE LYRICS FOR ONE OF THE SONGS ON THE SvM3 SOUNDTRACK (you suggest genre and tempo, we send you the music track, you write the track and that's how we make a song) + TYRANT TIER (Military Box Edition + stuff)